12 May, 2015

Cold, dark and drizzling – not a very appealing start to the day.

The first 25 kilometres are through urban sprawl, with frequent roundabouts, traffic lights and  numerous junctions; so much stopping, starting and head scratching.  As we have noticed before once you reach a large town all the signposts focus on local amenities, such as the swimming pool, skateboard park and suchlike, which is no help at all when you want to get across the city and out the other side.  Progress was extremely slow, but, fortunately, once we reached open countryside once again, the cycle track started to follow the course of a disused railway which had a super smooth tarmac surface.  It was dead straight and dead flat giving us the opportunity to make up some time.  The only time we really saw any activity at all was when we passed  a group of people playing boules.  We stopped for a few minutes – long enough to see that it was all taken very seriously.

For the remaining part of the ride we were back to the pine woods running parallel with the coastline once again.  By now the sun has just broken through the clouds, lighting up the landscape.  We have about another 100 kilometres or so to go of pine wood tracks until we reach the mouth of the river Gironde, where we cross by ferry from Pointe de Grave to Royan.  Not the most stimulating of terrain and we suspect tomorrow will be one of those days to just get our heads down and ride.

We keep passing through clusters of beach bars, closed with shutters down, which must come alive during the heat of August, but are decidedly dead now.   One has decided to open where groups of surfers hang out – we join then for a welcome ice cream and cold drink before hitting the trail one again.  We had started to worry that the campsite might be closed, but it isn’t and it is actually pretty busy.  It is one of those types where all the plots are set up with stone surfaces, ideal for camper vans, but horrible for tents and thin sleeping mats.  Not particularly cheap either at 22 Euros and no WiFi.  Still, the choice is the it or leave it, so we take it.